The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1887-10-05
TALMAGEs SERMON.
New-Fangled Beliefs VS.. The Ro-
hgion Of the Bible.
rhe Only Source OF True Happiness to
be Found In Strict Observance ~
Christian Doctriue--Advics
to Young Men.

Rev. i. Dewitt Talmage. IN recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
! Tor his subject, "a Straight Up-and-Down
Religion His text was
4 And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
seest thouY and said, A plumb iine. Amos
vii, g.
DR.. Talmage said: The sold masonry OF
the world has to me fascination. Walk
about some of the triumphal arches and
& the cathedraIs, four hundred or six hum
dred years old, and see them stand as
erect as when they were builded, walls OF
great height for centuries, not bending a
quarter Of an inch in this way or that.
So greatly honored were the masons who
builded these walls that they were free
from taxation and called "freev masons.
The trowel gets most of the credit for
these buildings, and its clear ringing on
stone and brick has sounded across the
ages. But there is another implement OF
Just as much Importance as the trowel,
and my text recognizes it. Bricklayers
and stonemasons and carpenters, in the
building of walls, use an instrument made
of a cord, Mt the end OF which lump OF
lead is fastened. They drop it over
the side of the wall, and, as
the plummet naturally seeks the center OF
gravity in the earth, the workman dis
covers where the wall recedes and where it
bulges out, and just what is the perpen-
dicular. Our text represents God as stand
ing on the wall of character, which the
Israelites had built, and in that way
measuring it.
And the Lord said unto me. Amos, what
seest thous and said, A plumb line.
What the world wants is straight up
and-down religion. Much OF the so-called
piety of the day bends this way and that,
TO suit the times. Ii is horizontal with .
low state OF sentiment and morals. We
have all been building wall of character,
and it is glaringly imperfect, and needs
reconstruction. How shall it be brought
into the perpendicular! Only by the
divine measurement.
And the Lord said to me, Amos what sscst
thous and said A plumb line
The whole tendency of the tires is to
make us act by the standard of what
others do. If they play cards, we play
cards. IL they dance, we dance. II they
read certain styles of books, I'VE read them.
We throw over the wall Of our character
the tangled plumb line of other lives, and
reject the infallible test which Amos saw.
The question for me should not be what
you think is right, but what God thinks is
right. This perpetual reference to the be-
hayior of others, as though it decided any
thing but human fallibility, is mistake
as wide as the world. There are ten thou
sand plumb lines in use, but only one is
true and exact, and that is the line of
Gods eternal right. There Is q mighty
attempt being made to reconstruct and fix
up the Ten Commandments. To many
they seem too rigid. The tower OF Pisa
leans over about thirteen feet from the
perpendicular, and people go thousands Of
miles to ses it's graceful inclination, and
by extra braces and various archi-'
tectural contrivances it is kept lean
ing from century to century. Why
not have the ten granite blocks of Sinai
set little aslant? Why not heve the pill
lar OF truth leaning tower? Why Is
not an ellipse as good as good asa square?
Why lis not an oblique as good as
straight up and down? My friends, we
must have standard: shall 1t be Gods or
man'ss
The divine plumb line needs to be
thrown over all merchandise Thousands
of years ago Solomon discovered the ten
dency of buyers to depreciate goods. He
saw man beating down an article lower
and lower, and saying 1t was not worth
the price asked, and when he had pur-
chased at the lowest point he told every
body what sharp bargain he had struck,
and how he had outwitted the merchant
1t is naught it is naught, saith the buyer, but
when he is gone his way, then he boasteth.
Proverbs Xxx, II.
So utterly askew is society in this mat
ter that You seldom find a seller asking
the price that he expects to get He puts
on higher value than he proposes to re-
And if he wants fifty, he asks seventy
five. And IL he wants two thousand he
asks two thousand five hundred.
sit is naught," saith the buyer. "The
fabric is DETECTIVES; the style OF goods Is
poor; ] can get elsewhere n better article
at smaller price. 1t is out of fashion; it
is damaged; it win fade; it will not wear
well.n After a while, the merchant from
overpersuaslon, or from the desire to dis
pose of that particular stock OF goods,
says: "Well, take it at your own price,
and the purchaser goes home with light
step, and calls into his private Office his
confidential friends, and chuckles while he
tells how that for half price he got the
goods. In other words, he lies and was
proud of ii.
Nothing would make times as good, and
the earning of a livelihood so easy, as tho
universal adoption OF the law OF right
Suspicion strikes through all bargain-mak-
ing. Men who sell know not wheth
they will ever get the money. Purchasers
know not whether the goods shipped will
be according to the sample. And what
with the large number of clerks who are
making false entries and then absconding
to Canada, and the explosion of firms
That fail for millions OF dollars, honest
knen are at their wits end to make liv-
ing. he who stands up amid all the
pressure and does right is accomplishing
something toward the establishment of q
high commercial prosperity. | have deer
sympathy for the laboring classes who
toll with hand and foot. But we must not
forget the business men who, without any
complaint or hammered procession through
the street, are enduring stress of cir
cumstances terrific. The fortunate peo-
pie to-day are those who are receiving
daily wages on regular salaries. And the
men most to be pitied are those who con-
duct business while prices are falling,
and yet try to pay their clerks and en-
ploy os, and are In such fearful straits that
they would quit business tomorrow il it
were not for the wreck and ruin OF others.
When people tell me at what a ruinously
low price they purchased an artlcle IL
gives me more dismay than satisfaction.
know il means the bankruptcy and defal-
cation OF men in many departments. The
men who toll with the brain need full as
much sympathy as those who toll with the
hand. All business life is struck through
with suspicion, aud panics are only the
result of want Of confidence.
The pressure TO do wrong is all the
stronger from the fact that in our day the
large business houses are swallowing up
the smaller, the whales dining on blue fish
and minnows. The large houses undersell
the small ones because they can afford 1t.
They can afford to make nothing, or
actually lose, on some styles OF goods, as
sured they can make ii up on others. So,
n great dry goods house goes outside OF
its regular line and sells books at cost,
and that swamps the booksellers, or, the
H., ,r,.<du haraa calls brie. brae at the